The present invention broadly relates to ink jet printers and, more specifically, pertains to a new and improved method of fabricating component parts of an ink droplet generator for generating a sequence of charged, detected and deflected ink droplets for an ink jet printer as well as an arrangement of the components of such ink droplet generator.
Generally speaking, the method of the present invention is for fabricating an ink droplet generator for an ink jet printer wherein a succession of ink droplets is charged, detected or monitored and deflected, while the arrangement of the present invention, namely the ink droplet generator comprises electrode means for the ink droplet generator, of the ink jet printer for generating a succession of charged, detected or monitored and deflected ink droplets.
In the development of ink jet printers with a high ink droplet frequency and a high ink droplet velocity, an electromagnetic device provided with appropriate means is required. Individual ink droplets are charged, detected or monitored and deflected by a device associated with an ink jet propulsion member or nozzle to create a character image or data pattern at an appropriately designated character position or data field.
In known devices and arrangements, due to the relatively aggressive ink media which also leads to chemical reactions, the electronic means arranged relatively close together can smear and plug up or clog and thereby cause an electrical short-circuit. Such known ink jet printers are often rendered inoperative or even completely unusable by such malfunctions. Furthermore, these prior art devices have a relatively complicated structure and are not suited for an arrangement of a plurality of ink jet propulsion members or nozzles in mutual close proximity as is required, for instance, in ink jet printers for generating continuous graphic representations, or can only be made suitable for such arrangement by employing complex technology.